An Interview With Kat Rosqueta on How Philanthropy Strengthens Democracy

Share

Katherina ‘Kat’ M. Rosqueta is the founding executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy. Founded as a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice and alumni of the Wharton School, the Center for High Impact Philanthropy is the premier source of knowledge and education to help donors around the world do more good.

Founding Executive Director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, Kat Rosqueta, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss social impact, strengthening democracy through philanthropy and knowledge sharing in philanthropy.

Her team at the Center is highly multi-disciplinary, which Kat notes is essential. You need the best thinking from diverse actors and disciplines to improve and change the world. At the Center, they focus on different thematic areas. An interesting – and highly topical – area of research they’re currently pursuing looks at how philanthropy can strengthen democracy.

At the Center, they decide which thematic areas to focus on by determining whether there’s a high potential for social impact; whether they have the funding; whether they think they can quickly assemble a team that can generate answers quickly and well; and whether there is clear funder interest globally for such research.

Kat’s key takeaway for listeners: now, more than ever, any individual can practice high impact philanthropy. High impact philanthropy is not about how much you give but, rather, it’s about how you give. If you’re unsure of where to start your philanthropic journey, you should simply just start and take the first step. Use the wealth of resources available at the Center and elsewhere that are publicly available and get excited about the impact you can make over a lifetime.

Read the full article on Kat Rosqueta at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy.

Giving Compass' Take:
• Michael Etzel and Hilary Pennington explain how the focus on nonprofit programs have left organizations without infrastructure and financial reserves.
• Why have so many nonprofits been left without operating funds? How can philanthropists close the gap?
• Learn more about funding nonprofit overhead.
As any architect knows, durable structures rise from strong foundations. The same is true of nonprofits. Organizational capacity and financial resilience provide the foundation that allows a nonprofit to advance its mission from a position of strength. Yet, both donors and grantees commonly ignore or fail to act on this knowledge.
A Bridgespan review of financial statements spanning 2009 t0 2014 from nearly 300 name-brand nonprofits with big budgets and successful programs—which together account for a third of the top 15 US foundations’ spending—found that shaky finances are, in fact, the rule. More than half (53 percent) experienced recurring or chronic budget deficits in at least two of the past five years. And 40 percent had fewer than three months of reserves to cushion all-too-frequent shortfalls.
In fact, 30 of the 275 organizations had no reserves—making them technically insolvent.
These numbers are alarming, but ultimately understandable. Both nonprofits and donors instinctively focus money and attention on building programs to help as many people as possible. Yet the underpinnings of those programs, as well as the organization’s infrastructure and financial health, often suffer from neglect.
What’s needed, our study clearly revealed, is an operational model that supports strong programs and strong organizations.
Read the full article about nonprofit budgets by Michael Etzel and Hilary Pennington at Forbes.

Looking for a way to get involved?

If you are interested in Civil Society, please see these relevant events, training, conferences or volunteering opportunities the Giving Compass team recommends.

Are you ready to give?

In addition to learning and connecting with others, taking action is a key step towards becoming an impact giver. If you are interested in giving with impact for Civil Society take a look at these Giving Funds, Charitable Organizations or Projects.